Gonna be a missionary for Halloween?

Here we are approaching a second Halloween in the mission field. No more after that. I asked Tab what he was going to be for Halloween. A missionary maybe? His reply was, "Seriously, people think we dress up as the missionaries from the Book of Mormon play - haha!" Everything about his letter this was random but we take anything we can get!

Hi Mom! and family,

So I figured out a good christmas present. You could just send me printed pictures of the stuff I or you have taken pictures of. I used to go to Walmart and print them out but now Walmart is so far that we don't go there anymore. Not a big deal though. I don't really like Walmarts here - they have terrible produce. And they are expensive!!

Our week was alright, kinda similar to last week but a little bit better. Our weekend was pretty lame again. Sadly, we weren't able to see any of our progressing investigators this week - it's like a curse! Kidding, but we didn't see Comfort or KC or Raymond. We saw Michael (haitian) and he is doing well but it's been really hard to teach him because nobody in the ward that can translate has time to pick him up and take him to the church. So, our lessons with him are with his brothers and it's difficult to teach them all at the same time. Anyway, we've decided to not get too preoccupied with people that don't choose to progress or don't have time to meet with us. We'll still go over there when we have an appointment, but we won't waste time trying to stop by at random hours of the day every day. The hard part for us is finding new investigators who don't live in Newark. We're trying to make use of the area which we have, but nobody I've met yet in Maplewood or South Orange really want to change. It's a different approach to missionary work that I'm not used to.

I remember doing a project on the Bill of Rights... I had to write a paper about one of the amendments. Have you done that yet? What is your constitution project like? As for a religions class, it would have been nice to take that World Religions class before my mission haha. Then I would know how to better help people. But it is what it is.

The Gospel is good news, isn't it? Some people don't get that. I tell them there is a prophet who lives - and they get upset. That's a good thing! They should be excited to find out for themselves if that is true, but for some reason they aren't. The effects of the apostasy are annoying. But, I do what I can.

Yes, please send me pictures of Brazil. I'm sure Elder Priest would like to see them. I haven't really learned the lesson of not procrastinating for myself yet, but I feel like I have gotten better. The problem with my calling is that I don't know whether I should be spending study time or proselyting time or what ever time to prepare for district meetings and filling out forms and what not. And with training, it is somewhat the same. I have a few things I have to do and we don't have free time to do them. Don't worry, I am not complaining, even if it sounds like it. But it is a predicament I think a lot about. If I had advice on how to help Colby and Rorie, I would give it to you. I think the biggest thing that helped me in college was if I had lots of homework, I would just stay on campus in the library or something like that. That way there is no distraction and there really isn't much else I can do besides do homework. And they don't have computers, so it would be even easier for them. Tell them to study and work hard!

I bought some black vans. Not the ones you are thinking of though. I like them, but I have to admit it was somewhat of a rash decision. I like those nikes I saw even more and they are the same price - $40. I still have the old shoes. I like the way they look and they are in good enough shape that I use them for service stuff. 

I can't find them on the website but tell Colby to get these: 

http://shop.vans.com/catalog/Vans/en_US/style/sdi9sp.html?categoryId=91108

They're funny looking but cool - or any vans OTW shoes are cool.

I am sad to hear about Cameron - I knew him really well, actually. I worked with him a lot in the grill. And I played a lot of rounds with him too. You can leave him a nice message in my name :) He will be missed.

OK, it looks like that's about it. I'll respond to your other letters if there are any.

Say hi to everyone for me. Apologize to dad because I didn't take time to write back to him. I hope his trip to Brazil went well. I love you all!

Love you!

Tab

p.s. Rorie has adult teeth!

Some weekends are kind of rotten

Sometimes I read Tab's emails and feel a bit sorry for him when he's had a bad week. But, it doesn't last long because he doesn't have too many of those. He always ends with something like "I'm sure next week will be better" or "Sunday was great so that made up for a bad week".  I'm grateful that he can find something good even when it seems bad. He is a great example of that!


Hey Mom!

How are you?

 

I had a decent week - I'll just fill you in from Friday on. So it was kind of a rotten weekend... we had a lot of appointments and every one juked so I was bummed. But I stay patient. The annoying part is 1) trying to find things to do when all your backups aren't home either and so your day is spent just driving from place to place and you never get to teach anyone and 2) worrying about the investigators' well-being and 3) worrying about how to cheer up my companion. Anyway, we made it through the week and I assume it won't be that bad again for another while. So that's good :)

 

We didn't get to teach any of our investigators again, sadly, but Comfort and her daughter came to church as usual and enjoyed it. We will see them again on Friday. KC is doing alright, she is just flakey sometimes. However, whenever we have lessons with her, she is super solid. So that is a little frustrating. We taught a new guy this week, named Ralph. He is dating a YSA member and he has come to church almost every week for the past month or so. We asked him if he wanted to join the church, and he said yes. So now we just have to help him get a testimony! That's what he asked us to help him do. He doesn't live in our area, but I assume that he will move here soon and the two will get married in a couple of months. He's awesome.

 

Other than that, I don't have much to add! For Christmas, that'd be cool if you sent me another pair of blue slacks. The ones I have are starting to fade. I think the material they are made of is prone to do that. I also have a pair of black slacks in my closet that you can send me, I think. And some new shirts would be good. I'm just not sure how many. I can let you know. I have some that are still nice and white, actually almost all of them are, but the problem is that they are fraying on the sleeves and near the neck. Otherwise I'd probably use them for the rest of my mission. And I'm good on shoes and what not. I bought a new pair a couple months ago. However I saw some at the nike outlet that I think Colby might like. The Eric Koston 2 in red, with a gum sole. I thought they were cool. They were on sale, but I already have way too many shoes - haha.

 

OK I think that's about it.

 

Have a great week! I love you all. Let me know if you have more questions. I can answer them when I come back during the week.

 

Love,

Tab 

Hey dad! 

Thanks for the letter. I know it's a late reply, but I still read what you wrote.

 

First of all, I would love to learn how to fly fish when I get home. There are a few hobbies I want to pick up, one of them being fishing. And of course, I also would love to get better at golfing. So I'll go with you when you have free time. I thought a little bit about skiing too... whether I should stick with snowboarding or switch to skiing or just give up both entirely. I'm not sure yet.

 

I like the equation you shared. Is the idea that the more you expect of yourself, the less others have to discipline you? I have noticed that correcting discipline isn't something I usually receive easily, or gladly. I think that is just human nature. So rather than receiving correction from others, I could just correct myself. Hopefully I understood that correctly.

 

Well, I will go write mom. She has a lot to ask me ;)

 

Thanks for your example. I love you.

 

Tab

p.s.

Thanks again for the thought. I have never read that scripture in D&C 121, although I have spent a lot of time in that section, mostly at the beginning and at the end of it.

 

Question, do you still speak Portuguese? When Elder Priest said his prayers in Portuguese, I could pick up about 60/70% of what he said. That was nice because then I could help him speak the mission language from 6pm to 9pm. I could understand what he said and then respond in English or Spanish. I have noticed that my Spanish has taken a real dive since I left Trenton. I still contact hispanics on occasion, but my Gospel vocabulary is very limited. I can still understand just about everything that is spoken to me, though.

 

If you haven't already, you should take a look at Elder Bednar's talk called Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary. I think I have mentioned it before. I really like it. It gave me a lot of confidence when I read the qualifications to become a PMG missionary. They are very simple.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Love,

Tab

Staying in Maplewood and Elder Thompson is back!

Another holiday came and went, which meant we didn't get a letter from Tab on p-day. After sending a short message on Wednesday, he wrote again on Friday. I'm okay with two in one week! As usual......All is well! 

Hi Mom! 

I don't have any time to email today (we only had like half an hour to come before district meeting) but I will come back to the library probably on Friday and finish emails. Monday was a holiday so we didn't do much - elder Priest and I went to Costco because it was open and then we ate at Rio (rodizio grill type deal) for an elder's birthday.

I am staying in Maplewood, but I got a new companion and his name is Elder Sterling Pabla. He is from Bountiful Utah but his dad is from India so there's a little bit of indian in our companionship now so that's good. Now we can teach all the indian people I've always wanted to talk to. Elder Priest went to Jersey City Heights. Don't worry - he didn't get transferred because we had companionship problems. Often that's what is implied if companions only stay together for one transfer, but that's not true for us. 

Hey, I know Tyler pretty well. I like him a lot. He was taught by the Hightstown missionaries but we went over to their home a lot for dinner and they were in our ward, so that's how I know him. They just started teaching him before I left. But that is great news that he finally got baptized!

I let you know on Friday more about Christmas stuff. Probably just a couple new shirts and pants haha. And some chocolate : )

 

Alright I'll talk to you later!

Love,

Tab

And another......

Hi Mom! 

I just realized I don't have much to talk about... I answered most of your questions right? As for Timpview winning state, I heard! Elder Gregson Aspinall from Timpview just got to our mission, and I talked to him for a while at the trainers meeting. He's great. He knows Colby, somewhat. So that's good! I was really happy about that! Send me the article when you can.

 

How is Colby doing in school? He never mentioned that in his letter to me :) 

 

Well, there are a few great people we are teaching... namely KC, Raymond, and Comfort and her daughter Diane. KC is from St Lucia, and she has read the Bible. She's smart. She has felt the Spirit many times when we have taught her, so I think we can make some great progress with her. But she wants to know everything before getting baptized, so we have a lesson planned out for that :) She has a baptismal date thought, and she's praying about it. We have to get her to church too :/ Then Raymond is this cool guy from Ghana, and he's like 24. He would probably join the church in 3 weeks if he didn't have to work on Sunday. He's too afraid that he won't be able to pay his bills if he quits working on Sunday. So we're helping him out with that. But he's super cool, so that's good. Then there is Comfort. You might recognize the name; she is someone we taught back in East Orange. She lives at the same place, but the boundary for the area changed so now she's in our area! It's great because she wanted to go to Maplewood chapel anyway - it's much closer to her house. She is being fellowshipped really well by the ward members, so I don't suspect it will be very long before she is baptized and confirmed a member of the church. She's already been taught everything, and she's come to church many times. We have a lesson with her tonight... I'll let you know how it goes! And we have a couple others we are teaching who are progressing well too.

 

Good news - Elder Thompson was transferred to Irvington walking area, so now he lives across the street from us. So, that means I'll be spending a lot of time around him again. Which is great! We went to Five Guys on Wednesday. The previous elder there, Elder Smith, was ending his mission and just went home. He is probably the most efficient missionary this mission has, and there are so many good things happening in their area, so he asked President Jeppson to replace him with the best missionary he can get. And it happened to be Elder Thompson! So, that means that he's doing something right.

 

And that's about all I've got! My companion is great. He's a simple means type, kind of like me. Doesn't need much to make him happy. He doesn't complain and what not. He's really calm. And he is obedient! He's a good missionary. I have to work with him on being bold and confident, but of course that will come with time. I'll let you know more about him as I find out...!

 

Have a good week! I'll talk to you on Monday.

 

Love,

Tab

Baptisms and a zombie apocalypse

GREAT letters from Tab this week, but sometimes I wish he didn't share so much! There are things about his mission that I would rather NOT know. He tells his dad but he should remember that I read those letters too! I guess that's why he chose to share the part about the baptisms with me : ) 

Hi Mom!

 

I had a good week this week. As I told dad, it was really stressful and really happy and really peaceful. About the baptism, it was stressful preparing because we have been trying to prepare the oldest brother to pass his baptismal interview so he can get baptized with the other brothers, but sadly he did not pass. He is awesome, but he has a lot of influences on him that are not helping him find out what is true. So, we have to work with him still. But his three younger brothers passed, and were baptized and confirmed on Saturday. They are awesome. Like you read, most of the service was in Creole, so I didn't understand much. The boys have a long way to go still, but they knew enough and best of all they had a desire to repent and be baptized and follow Christ. I hope that we can get them to go to the temple this month. That would be a miracle, but their aunt would be willing to help us so we will do it! I have a picture I attached at the bottom. They only took one, and it's kinda goofy but it works :) I was smiling; that's all that matters. It was really tough to prepare for the baptism because we weren't even sure it was going to happen and we didn't have much time to prepare but everything came together by 6:45 pm on Saturday and the service proceeded! Once it started though, I felt relieved. It was out of my hands. Also, the ward did a really good job of helping us.

 

And there were many other interesting things that happened during the week. I talked to dad about most of the other stuff. I went on exchange in our area with my zone leader, Elder Morrill (Brandon - you know his mom) and we had a good time. He claimed that he learned more from it than I did but I learned a lot from him. He is really humble and he knows how to work. I like him. We met tons of great people that day and we went and taught one of them yesterday for the first time. Her name is KC, she is also Haitian. She accepted the message very well and committed to be baptized! Spiritually, she is very mature. She understands the scriptures, and she is the first person that has actually read the Bible cover to cover. It's frustrating when we meet people who say, "the Bible says this" or "I only believe in the Bible" when the truth is that they've probably only gandered through the new testament and read a couple of verses on their own. Anyway, she understood the Restoration! Seriously, I think I could use the Bible to teach the entire restoration lesson (we did with KC). So I'll be letting you know more about her soon. We are also contacting two other new people who have serious potential, we are just yet to sit down and have a lesson with them about the Restoration. Raymond and Benjamin (and his family). They are both from Ghana. 

 

When you get time, you should look into ichthyology theology... Elder Thompson said he wanted to major in that field of study. It is the study of fish religions. Apparently he had taken classes at BYU about it. Also, in your class do they go into the subcategories of Christianity? Like Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, etc. Something I have noticed about Hindus is that they will believe everything you tell them. Maybe that is just their culture, but they don't quite understand the apostasy and the fact that Christ has one true church, according to what we believe. So, it is tough to get very far with them, because either they are non committal or they do get baptized and then start going to whatever church. haha.

 

I talked to dad all about conference. Elder Uchtdorf always, in my opinion, gives the best talks. and he didn't let me down this time. I think the two he gave, one being in the priesthood session, were the best. And Elder Bednar's talk. I loved all the new seventies... it was a special thing to see Elder Dube on the stand. As you could imagine, the members in the Maplewood ward were very excited to see that. I was too. I hope to see more African general authorities. They are fabulous people. Our bishop is one of them... I don't know how he manages to do all that he does. We ate dinner at his house last night, and I was so impressed with his capacity to balance work, church, and family and stay as peaceful as he is. He and his counselors are wonderful.

 

Stay in school! Let everyone know I love them and that I am jealous they are in school. I've said this before - oddly, I miss being in school. 

I love you too!! Have a great week

 

Tab

Hey Dad!

 

I will take more time today to type a letter to mom, but I would like to answer your questions. I had a crazy week! It is one I will not forget because it was so good but so stressful. I went on two exchanges this week and one in particular, was one of the neatest experiences I've had on my mission. It wasn't special really, but I never was so happy or at peace as I was that day. I went with Elder Penrod to their walking area in Irvington (the hood of hoods in our mission) and it was awesome. I really miss being in a walking area. It's so busy and crazy there, but I felt more at peace than I have in my entire mission. I just wanted to talk to everyone and there was no rush to it. Maybe it was ignorance - haha.  Later that night though, we got stuck in the more dangerous part of their area and it so happened that the power was out for a couple blocks. That was a funny experience that if I wish I had more time to explain. But I honestly felt like I was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse - police everywhere, traffic is all messed up, flares in the streets, crime going unnoticed because there's no streetlights, houses empty, etc. It was something like the beginning scenes of I Am Legend. Eventually we got picked up and we went home. So that was fun!

 

We got to watch conference at the Maplewood chapel. There were more members there on Saturday than I would have expected, and Sunday there were even more. It was nice. I don't think it's on TV anywhere here, so the members who didn't come to church hopefully watched it on their computers. My favorite talks were by Pres. Uchtdorf, especially his priesthood session talk. I also liked many of the new seventies' talks. They did well! I really liked Elder Hamilton's talk and Elder Vinson's talks, but I had a hard time paying attention when the fly came in and wouldn't leave. Elder Bednar I enjoyed, and of course, President Monson. I was surprised when he didn't speak at the end of the afternoon session yesterday!

 

I'll write to mom all about the baptism.

 

Smoked turkey....? interesting! You ought to try frying it. I still hope to one day have some smoked salmon :)  

 

Thanks for writing. I love you!

 

Tab

Our new area is great!

My letter this week......

Hey Mom! 

I have to email you later... sorry :(  I just am out of time today. But I'll talk to you soon! Thanks for all the nice photos/letters/shoutouts!

 

I love you too,

 

Tab

Tim's letter........

Hey Dad! 

Thanks for your letter. I'm really short on time today, but I will reply a little bit to your letter because I liked it - you asked some good questions.

 

Our new area is great! Most of the work we do, for some reason, is in Newark. I don't know yet if that is because I and my companion are familiar with those areas, or if it's because the people there listen to us, or what. But, that is were we spend a more part of our time. It's somewhat dangerous at night, but we stay in lighted areas where there are lots of people. Our pool of investigators is still small, but we have many potentials. We've done service for probably 100 people and we've had lengthy contacts with at least 50 people a week. The hard part is getting a set appointment with them that follows through. The demographics of the area are somewhat strange. There's Maplewood and South Orange, which are predominately white, middle and upper class families. Lots of Jews and Catholics. Thus, we don't see as many people there. In Newark, it is all over the place. People of the same country tend to group together, and it's funny because they usually take up an entire apartment building so depending on what building we go, there is where  we will undoubtedly find people of that race or nationality. But there are large populations of Indians (Hindu), Russians and Ukrainians, Haitians, Ghanaians, Nigerians and Kenyans, and then usually the Caribbean countries congregate together (St Lucia, Trinidad, Jamaica, St Vincent, Grenada, Guyana, Surinam, Dominica, Barbados and I guess Haitians could fit in there too). People are from everywhere! It feels like a foreign land. I don't really contact the Indians much because  they hardly ever speak much English and I just don't know much about what they believe. That's bad of me, so I will try to overcome that fear. And of course, the Russians and Ukrainians. They aren't very friendly, and almost none of them speak English. There are a lot of Central Americans in one area, and I have gotten my Spanish to a somewhat fluent level so I can converse with them. I can get a point across, tell them what we do and where our church is, talk about non-Gospel things (my gospel vocab is no that great) and turn it into a referral for Spanish missionaries. We had a small miracle last week that I'll talk to you about when I have more time. It came from just contacting a Spanish woman, who happened to be a member of the church. She spoke no English too! So that was neat.

 

My companion has been in New Jersey for almost 6 months now. He put his visa papers in last October I believe. And he's going to Brasilia. Ok I have to jet! I love you though, hope that helped you get an idea of what Newark is like. Look it up on google earth!

 

Have a super week!

Love,

Tab

(Well, actually, I did get a few other little emails too.....with fun comments.....Tabisms. If you know Tab, you know what I mean. Good stuff! I never feel cheated.)